Un conmutador es un interruptor eléctrico rotativo en ciertos tipos de motores eléctricos y generadores eléctricos que periódicamente cambia la dirección de la corriente entre el rotor y el circuito externo. En un motor, proporciona la energía a la mejor ubicación en el rotor, y en un generador, recibe la energía de forma similar. Como un interruptor, tiene una excepcional larga vida útil, tomando en cuenta el número de aperturas y cierres que ocurren en operación normal. Un conmutador, es una característica común en máquinas rotativas de corriente continua. Al revertir el sentido de la corriente en la bobina en movimiento de la armadura de un motor, una fuerza constante rotativa (torque) es producido. De manera similar, en un generador, revirtiendo la conexión de la bobina al circuito externo provee de corriente directa unidireccional al circuito externo. La primera máquina de corriente directa con conmutador fue creada por Hippolyte Pixii en 1832, basado en una sugerencia de André-Marie Ampère.

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A commutator is a moving part of a rotary electrical switch in certain types of electric motors and electrical generators that periodically reverses the current direction between the rotor and the external circuit. It consists of a cylinder composed of multiple metal contact segments on the rotating armature of the machine. Two or more electrical contacts called "brushes" made of a soft conductive material like carbon press against the commutator, making sliding contact with successive segments of the commutator as it rotates. The windings (coils of wire) on the armature are connected to the commutator segments. Commutators are used in direct current (DC) machines: dynamos (DC generators) and many DC motors as well as universal motors. In a motor the commutator applies electric current to the windings. By reversing the current direction in the rotating windings each half turn, a steady rotating force (torque) is produced. In a generator the commutator picks off the current generated in the windings, reversing the direction of the current with each half turn, serving as a mechanical rectifier to convert the alternating current from the windings to unidirectional direct current in the external load circuit. The first direct current commutator-type machine, the dynamo, was built by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832, based on a suggestion by André-Marie Ampère. Commutators are relatively inefficient, and also require periodic maintenance such as brush replacement. Therefore, commutated machines are declining in use, being replaced by alternating current (AC) machines, and in recent years by brushless DC motors which use semiconductor switches.

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